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Mariana Whitmer

Mariana Sonntag Whitmer has been appointed the new Executive Director of the Society for American Music (formerly The Sonneck Society). Whitmer will work with President Rae Linda Brown and the other ten members of the Board to carry out the Society’s mission: “to stimulate the appreciation, performance, creation, and study of American music in all its historical and contemporary styles and contexts, including, but not limited to art and popular musics, the musics of ethnic groups and minorities, and the full range of activities associated with music. ‘American’ is understood to embrace North America, including Central America and the Caribbean, and aspects of its cultures elsewhere in the world.”

Whitmer will be managing the new offices of the Society at the Unversity of Pittsburgh. The establishment of the Pittsburgh office will give the Society access to the resources of the Center for American Music at the University of Pittsburgh. Her primary role will be assisting in the execution of the goals of the Society, providing a focal point for Society business, and serving as official greeter for new members.

Whitmer brings to the Society a diverse background, experienced in musical as well as business concerns. Her academic credentials include a B.A. in Musicology from the University of Southern California in 1978, and a Ph.D.in Historical Musicology from the University of Chicago in 1987. She worked at the IBM Corporation from 1985-1996, where she managed a team of technical and marketing specialists in corporate sales. Dr. Whitmer also has extensive experience as an early childhood music specialist.

It was Dr. Whitmer’s combined interest in musical research that brought her to the “Voices Across Time” project in January 1999. “Voices” is a project of the Society of American Music, in consultation with the Center for American Music. Working with Deane Root, former President of the Society, she assisted realizing an innovative curriculum that uses music as a primary source for teaching American history. The curriculum is currently being piloted in schools across the United States.

One of the goals of the Society is to encourage historical investigation into all aspects of American musical life. In an interview, Dr. Whitmer noted that more and more musicologists are turning to the previously-neglected field of American music, and that universities are hiring more “American music specialists.” She intends to spurs more interest in American music not only among musicologists, but also among students of all ages, composers, and performers. To this end, the Society’s current website is undergoing a “facelift.” There are also plans to make the society’s two periodicals available online.

Upcoming activities of the Society for American Music include participation in the “2000 Music Megaconference” November 1-5, in Toronto with fourteen other music societies. The Society will present awards to American jazz greats Oscar Peterson and Billy Taylor at this conference. Other events include the annual Society conference, which will be held in Trinidad in March 2001, with the Center for Black Music Research. The Society makes a concerted effort to include performers as conference participants, with a wide variety of concerts and lecture-recitals planned for both the November and March sessions.

The Society for American Music was founded in 1975 and first named The Sonneck Society, in honor of Oscar G. T. Sonneck. It is a constituent member of the American Council of Learned Societies. Its publications include the journal “American Music” and its “Bulletin” and “Membership Directory.” The Society has over 1000 individual and institutional members.

On August 9, the National Endowment for the Arts announced the release of a landmark research report on artists’ employment, specifically examining multiple jobholding or “moonlighting.” Commissioned by the NEA’s Research Division, More Than Once in a Blue Moon: Multiple Jobholdings by American Artists is unprecedented for the breadth of data examined that compares artists’ employment with that of other professions. Researchers and authors Neil O. Alper and Gregory H. Wassall reviewed thirty years of information in developing the report, primarily from the Current Population Survey, a monthly Census Bureau survey sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Among the key findings of the report is that artists moonlight at a rate 40 percent higher than other professional workers, with as many as 80 percent of artists holding second jobs at some point within a year. Also, artists indicated more often that their primary motivation for moonlighting is to earn additional income to cover household expenses. Other relevant figures for artists include unemployment rates that are twice those of other professional workers and earnings that are 12 to 23 percent less than other professionals.

According to 1995 data included in the study, 13 percent of musicians and composers held a second job. Music was the most popular moonlighting profession, with thirty-nine percent of all workers claiming music performance or composition as a second job.

Another important finding is the shifting nature of second jobs. Fifty-five to seventy-five percent of second jobs held by artists are in professional and technical fields that include the arts. However, since 1985, the number of moonlighting artists with second jobs also in the arts decreased from three in five to one in three. At the same time, the number of moonlighting artists with second jobs in fields other than the arts increased from one in ten to one in three.

General comparison of the artistic labor market with other professional labor markets revealed several significant differences. The authors characterized jobs in the arts as relatively “open,” for instance, frequently requiring little or nothing in the way of minimum education or certification. The artistic labor market is also distinguished by fewer stable and full-time jobs than in other professional markets. Even college music teaching jobs are considered less “full-time” than other types of professional work because they last only nine months, generally necessitating a secondary job during the summer.

The authors provided another description of the artistic labor market as “winner-takes-all.” In a “winner-takes-all” market, a few people earn large incomes, while the median income is relatively low. Given the openness of the artistic job market, there is a constant oversupply of artists aspiring to become wealthy and famous. Many see their occupation as a “calling” and are unwilling to give up and switch occupations.

Alper and Wassall co-direct the Cultural Arts Policy Research Institute with Ann Galligan, a fellow faculty member at Northeastern University. In an interview, Alper stressed that their goal is simply to provide information that could be used to help formulate public policy on the arts, not to advocate specific policies. This conscientiously neutral approach is reflected in the conclusions they drew from their findings.

A government program designed to ameliorate the need for artists to hold second jobs would be politically difficult for two reasons, according to Alper and Wassall: “The employment difficulties of artists are not of the same order of magnitude as those of workers with little education or job skills, such as minority teenagers or welfare mothers.” Also, there are multiple motives for moonlighting, not all of which imply job market duress.

While the authors respect the idea of government aid to artists, they also cited three reasons to doubt the effectiveness of such support. Chief among these is that when it becomes financially easier to work as an artist, more people choose artistic careers. The number of jobs remains finite, and consequently the newcomers end up “moonlighting” to make ends meet. Secondly, it is difficult to come up with a practical definition of who is an “artist” and thus deserves government support. And finally, statistics show that artists living in countries with far greater direct government support moonlight at roughly the same rate as American artists.

The Current Population Survey includes artist occupational groups such as actors, musicians, playwrights and sculptors. The authors of the study grouped musicians and composers with actors, directors, dancers, and announcers into a single group, “performing artists.” Postsecondary music teachers fall into the category of “other artists.” Neil Alper explained that had they broken their data down to the point of a separate group for musicians and composers, the sample would have been too small to be reliable.

More specific information on the plight of performing musicians and composers is available, however. Research Division Note #76, Artist Employment in 1999 was released concurrently with More Than Once In a Blue Moon. The study examines the increase in artist employment during the year and includes information on earnings and projected employment growth.

The Current Population Survey showed that for the 271,000 people working as musicians, 36.5% considered it a second job, a higher percentage than any other group of artists. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook prepared by the BLS, the median salary for musicians, singers, and related workers was $30,020 in 1998 and the projected increase by 2008 falls between 10 and 20 percent. This calculation does not include salary information for music teachers.

Based on the CPS, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were 12,000 fewer musicians and composers in the labor force in 1999 than in 1998. This can be broken down into 1,000 fewer unemployed musicians and 11,000 fewer employed musicians; in plain English, this means that 12,000 musicians or composers have retired or found work doing something else.

In 1999, the unemployment rate among musicians and composers was 4.8%. This is down from 5.2% in 1998 and 7.1% i
n 1997. The unemployment rate is calculated based on the number of people declaring their primary occupation as that of musicians and composers. Of the eleven artist occupations listed, musicians and composers ranked 5th in terms of total unemployment. Teachers of art, drama, and music had the third-lowest unemployment rate, only 2.8%. The general civilian unemployment rate in 1999 was 3.9%.

More Than Once in a Blue Moon: Multiple Jobholdings by American Artists is available, for $11.95, by writing to Seven Locks Press, P.O. Box 25689, Santa Ana, CA 92799, or by calling 800-354-5348.

Musicmaker.com recently unveiled its new web site featuring expanded classical music offerings. Music lovers and collectors can now access a library of more than 60,000 licensed classical tracks and create custom CDs from their computers. Among the company’s classical offerings are tracks from labels such as EMI, Naxos, Koch, Newport Classic, Platinum, AVC, Nimbus, and Vox.

To organize, present and curate music in each genre, Musicmaker.com has enlisted some of the leading experts in each field. Anne Midgette is Musicmaker.com’s classical music editor; she also covers music and culture for such publications as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and Opera News.

To create custom CDs at Musicmaker.com, the user chooses music from any genre and may personalize their CD with a title and cover art. A 10-track CD is $14.95 plus shipping and handling, and arrives in the mail within a matter of days. In addition, visitors may download songs in any category from a collection of over 100,000 tracks via MP3 or Microsoft Windows Media format at $1.

Currently, of the 60,000 classical titles currently posted on the site, about half were written after 1900, according to Midgette’s estimate. Part of her job is to create six suggested compilations that run on the site for two weeks. One of the compilations posted in August was entitled All-American Classics, and included the works of Barber, Foster, and John Philip Sousa. This type of compilation is obviously intended to reach a wide audience; for the more experienced listener, the site offers a promising collection of recordings for download. Classical composers whose works are posted on the site range from John Luther Adams to Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, with some pleasant surprises in between, such as Kenji Bunch‘s recent Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra. There is also an extensive jazz catalog available on the site.

“The classical recording industry doesn’t do much for new composers,” Midgette said in an interview, “whereas this site will allow different kinds of music to find a niche audience without resorting to ‘crossover’ recording. It will be possible to market music that reaches only thirty people.”

Much like Musicnotes.com, Musicmaker.com has the luxury of purchasing and posting music that may sell only a few copies. It is obviously more cost-effective to produce one digital file that can be downloaded by multiple users than to print many CDs that will sit in a warehouse gathering dust. Musicmaker.com is also able to rope in the tentative new-music listener, the person unwilling to spend twenty dollars on a CD she may not like, but quite willing to give one or two tracks of an unknown piece a try.

Midgette hopes that the ability of Musicmaker.com to market new music in a cost-effective way will encourage record companies to revitalize their commitment to more esoteric projects. She is also looking for situations in which recording companies are not involved at all. This could benefit a well-known composer, for instance, who wants his or her “pet project” to reach a national audience, but fails to elicit interest on the part of major recording labels.

Unfortunately, despite the possibility of posting as-yet-unreleased recordings, Musicmaker.com is not about to function as a clearing-house for the homemade CDs of emerging composers. Midgette stressed that the editors of the site try to maintain a well-groomed “profile” by carefully selecting music on the merit of its high quality. They also only post those tracks that they think will sell at least a few copies.

Digital sheet music publisher Musicnotes.com has announced a distribution agreement with Warner Bros and Mel Bay. Warner Bros. Publications handles the imprints of thousands of titles printed by smaller publishing firms like Belwin Mills, Kalmus, Jazz at Lincoln Center and Studio P/R, Inc. Other publishers represented by Musicnotes include Theodore Presser, Boosey & Hawkes, and C. F. Peters.

Since the distribution agreements were reached, Musicnotes.com has posted approximately 7,000 new titles from Warner Bros. and approximately 500 from Mel Bay. Additional titles from both publishers are in the process of being prepared for downloading. The free Musicnotes Viewer allows musicians, educators, and fans to instantly see, hear, and print free sheet music samples. Customers can then purchase and download the entire piece of sheet music using a secure online commerce engine.

The current catalog is largely limited to piano, vocal, guitar, and organ music. At the moment there is little twentieth-century music available aside from pop music and several jazz titles. The company asserted that a planned expansion in the near future would incorporate an increased commitment to new American music. According to Tim Iversen, Director of Production and Development at Musicnotes.com, there are plans to develop a “sideline site” in the near future that would allow users to download contemporary classical music. Iversen stated that their low overhead costs will give them the freedom to make titles available that would ordinarily sell only a few print copies. The site would also provide an opportunity for self-published composers to post their scores. They are also planning to make choral and orchestral scores and parts available for downloading.

The Musicnotes Player allows potential customers to interact with a selected piece of music. The music notation and lyrics light up in time with the music, synchronizing note-for-note with either a MIDI performance or a real performance played from a CD. The user can change the speed of the piece in order to practice at any pace. As an educational aid, every symbol on the music page is linked to a music encyclopedia that enables the user to select a symbol and hear it or learn how to play it.

Jeffrey Biegel / Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Photo courtesy Jeffrey Biegel

Unlike many premieres, the first performance of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Millennium Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra will certainly not be the last. This is thanks to the Millennium Consortium Project, the brainchild of pianist Jeffrey Biegel, for whom the Fantasy was written, and arts consultant Jeffrey James.

Mr. Biegel will perform the World Premiere of the Millennium Fantasy on September 22 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Jesus Lopez-Cobos. He will then perform with twenty-six different orchestras during the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 seasons. The participating orchestras range from the Bangor Symphony in Maine to the California Music in the Mountains Festival. Biegel hopes that by “blanketing the country” with performances, the work will be well-known by the time it is recorded.

Biegel, a Juilliard-trained pianist, is known to American music aficionados for his performances of works by Gershwin, Leroy Anderson, and Dana Suesse. He was interested in commissioning Zwilich because he found her music to be “audience-friendly, melodically interesting, and harmonically piquant.” He was also attracted to her “exotic” uses of modal mixture and polytonality. He describes the eighteen-minute work as “classical-romantic in feeling” coupled with a “jazzy side.”

Zwilich wrote the piano part with Biegel’s virtuosic capabilities in mind, having heard his recordings of Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev piano concerti, as well as the recently-issued CD of Lalo Schifrin‘s Concerto of the Americas. Biegel calls the piano part “challenging,” noting that it includes a “triumphant” cadenza at the end of the second movement. He is very optimistic, however, that audiences will enjoy the new piece, and hopes that it will be recognized as an “instant staple of the piano repertoire.”

To commit to the consortium, orchestras agreed to perform the work, and contributed towards the commissioning fee. The process of identifying and contacting orchestras to become members of the consortium began in the spring of 1999. The vast majority of these contacts came about due to Jeffrey Biegel’s having performed previously with either the orchestra or its current Music Director, or having worked with the administrator at some point in his career. In the summer of 1999, Monica Robinson became Mr. Biegel’s booking representative and immediately brought a number of her contacts to the project as well.

Jeffrey James is currently working on additional consortium projects for the 2002-2003 season. The Louisville Orchestra and the Salt Lake Symphony have already committed to a consortium for Dan Locklair‘s Symphony no.1. In addition, James has contacted ensembles about participating in consortiums for a new symphony from Judith Sainte Croix, and a new piano concerto from Judith Lang Zaimont. He also hopes to organize a consortium in the near future for Benjamin Lees‘ Sixth Symphony. These composers are all clients of Mr. James at Jeffrey James Arts Consulting.

Additional project support has been provided by the Adele Marcus Foundation, the Abraham J. and Phyllis Katz Foundation, Marvin and Isa Leibowitz, the South Florida Council, and the Chopin Foundation of the United States. The American Music Center is aiding in the administering and disbursal of the commissioning consortium moneys.

Kamran Ince Photo courtesy European-American

Present Music and the Milwaukee Art Museum recently announced the commission of a new work by composer Kamran Ince that will be premiered in May of 2001 at the much-anticipated opening of the Museum’s building expansion. The new structure was designed by internationally-renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. It will provide space for changing exhibitions, and will also house the Quadracci Pavilion, which will be used for meetings, concerts, and lectures.

The commission was the idea of John Shannon and Jan Serr, long-time supporters of both Present Music and the Milwaukee Art Museum. Shannon and Serr approached Present Music and Milwaukee Art Museum when plans were finalized for the Calatrava expansion. Having been admirers of Turkish-American composer Kamran Ince, they approached Present Music’s Artistic Director Kevin Stalheim with their commissioning idea and a $12,000 gift to make the commission possible.

Milwaukee musical audiences are familiar with Kamran Ince’s music, since Present Music has performed his music annually since 1992. Ince’s work, Fest, received its world premiere performance by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra with Present Music as the guest ensemble in 1998. He has also performed as a pianist with Present Music, and he organized and participated in their 1994 tour of Turkey. Present Music has recorded his work for the Argo and Albany labels.

Ince is “very pleased” about the commission. He is no stranger to the Art Museum, which he calls “one of the best places in the country to hear new music.” The Vogel/Helfaer gallery has been the site for Present Music performances that have included world premieres of his works Night Passage, Arches and Split.

The commissioned work will be 15 minutes in length, and will be written in two contrasting sections. The work will be performed in its entirety for the invitation-only opening ceremony. The opening fanfare will then be performed separately throughout the summer. The first complete public performance of the piece will take place in September 2001 at the opening concert of Present Music’s 20th-anniversary season. This concert will also take place at the new Quadracci Pavilion.

Though the work is only in the planning stages, Ince hopes to incorporate some of the imagery of Calatrava’s design into the piece. The new building will have “wings” that will be opened up in the winter in order to let in more sunlight. Ince finds these wings musically inspiring. The fact that the building can unfold its wings makes it “animal-like,” he pointed out; at the same time, with its wings extended, it resembles a stately ship. He hopes to incorporate both the “freeness of flight” and the “grandeur of the ship” into his new composition.

Ince was born in 1960 in Montana to American and Turkish parents. His early musical training was in Turkey, at the Ankara and Izmir conservatories. Later he attended the Oberlin Conservatory and Eastman School of Music. His work has been performed by many prominent American orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony and the American Composers Orchestra. He is currently a member of the music faculty at the University of Memphis.

A sponsor is still being sought by Present Music to underwrite not only the two performances at the Museum, but also the added rehearsal time necessary to prepare this important new work. The ensemble hopes to make a live recording of the work at the Museum opening in May that will be released later in the summer, with proceeds benefiting both the Museum and Present Music.

Present Music was founded in 1982 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They play a wide range of modern chamber music, almost all of it by living composers. Composers who have worked in residence or have been commissioned by Present Music include John Adams, John Harbison, Michael Torke, Roberto Sierra, Bright Sheng, David Lang, and Lois V Vierk. They have toured extensively throughout the United States and have participated in several major international music festivals.

Though Present Music’s playful and innovative programs routinely draw 300 to 800 people, Managing Director Daniel Petry hopes that they will be able to “break through” to a “wider awareness” in the near future. National recognition will help to attract donors, which in turn will enable the ensemble to plan touring and commissioning projects. Plans include six commissions in 2001 and 2002, one for each concert of their 20^th-anniversary season.

Lou Harrison Photo by Dennis Keeley

Composer Lou Harrison was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal in Peterborough, New Hampshire, on Sunday, August 20. Virgil Thomson, himself a recipient of the Medal in 1977, once said, “It was Mozart‘s boast that he could master any musical style within a week and by the end of that time compose in it adeptly enough to deceive experts. Lou Harrison has something of that virtuosity himself… and he mixes things with infallible imagination…” An innovator of composition and performance transcending cultural boundaries, Harrison is the twelfth composer to receive the award.

Composer Chester Biscardi was chairman of this year’s selection committee, which also included music historian Vivian Perlis and composers Meredith Monk, Alvin Singleton, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. “In choosing Lou Harrison,” Mr. Biscardi notes, “the search committee recognizes his gentle and generous spirit, as well as the very personal and multi-faceted way in which he is and will continue to be a major presence in American and world music.”

Participating in the ceremony was chairman of the board Robert MacNeil, president of the board Carter Wiseman, and executive director Cheryl Young. Conductor Dennis Russell Davies delivered the presentation speech. Following the ceremony, artists in residence opened their studios to the public and allowed visitors to tour the Colony grounds, meet the artists, and view their work. This traditional open house is held only once a year.

In a musical career that has spanned more than fifty years, Lou Harrison has consistently been in the vanguard of American composers. He played a large role in the introduction of the Indonesian gamelan to United States audiences and, with William Colvig, constructed two large gamelans now in use at San Jose State University and Mills College. Harrison has explored dance, Asian music, alternate tuning systems, and universal languages as means of facilitating musical expression.

Recent performances of Harrison’s work included a June 1995 presentation of his Buddhist liturgical work “La Koro Sutro” in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. That same year, his joyful “Parade for MTT” opened the San Francisco Symphony season, celebrating the inauguration of director Michael Tilson Thomas. On June 15, 2000, Harrison was saluted by the San Francisco Symphony at the American Mavericks festival.

As an artist, Lou Harrison exemplifies the innovation and interdisciplinary work that has become part of the MacDowell Colony’s legacy. Unable to find the sound he imagined within Western orchestra, he looked elsewhere for inspiration–other cultures (China, Korea, Indonesia, Mexico), other sound sources (flower pots, brake drums, oxygen tanks), and other disciplines (dance, drama, literature). And if he still couldn’t find it, he made it. His insatiable curiosity has defined his career: each artistic challenge provides the opportunity for in-depth study, and he delights in combining disparate styles into untried syntheses.

The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire was founded in 1907 to provide a place where creative artists could find freedom to concentrate on their work. This remains its guiding purpose today. Writers, composers, visual artists, photographers, printmakers, filmmakers, and architects come to the Colony each year from all parts of the United States and abroad. They take advantage of uninterrupted time and seclusion in which to work and they enjoy the experience of living in a community of gifted artists.